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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

In 2014, two new Embryo Adoption facilitators entered the market, making a profound impact on the way that Embryo Adoption is done.

Compass Adoption, Inc. has launched an Embryo Adoption program that is focused towards providing affordable Embryo Adoption Facilitation. Providing their services below cost, this non-profit agency subsidizes their costs with private fundraising efforts in order to provide exceptional services at an affordable rate. Anastasia Taylor, VP of Family Services explained,"We are very excited to assist families in growing through embryo adoption, while providing a pro-life solution for families with frozen embryos."

The National Registry for Adoption has a similar goal in mind with their tagline, "Adoption Simplified." Founder Charis Boone Johnson stated, "We're simplifying the matching process so that you spend less time waiting and more time connecting with embryo donors or waiting families." Their website, www.NRFA.org, provides a forum for families to connect and match by posting profiles with their descriptive information.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

I received an email from a man who was upset about a couple in his extended family who are pursuing a so-called “snowflake adoption,” the adoption of a “frozen embryo” (to use, for clarity’s purpose only, the satanically clinical lingo of the current era). This couple had been led to do this after reading Adopted for Life, so he wanted to correspond.

How, he wondered, could I support this kind of adoption when I am opposed (and I am, strongly) to in vitro fertilization (IVF), donor assisted reproduction, and other technologies that violate the one-flesh union and the relationship between love and procreation. The same thing, he argued, is going on here with a donor embryo being implanted in an adopting mother’s womb.

First of all, there is no such thing as a “donor embryo.”

Someone can donate sperm or ovum or even a heart or a liver, but no one can “donate” an “embryo.” No one can “own” an “embryo.” An “embryo” isn’t a thing; he or she is a “who.” Our Lord Jesus is the pinnacle of the image of God (Heb. 1:1-3). He was an “embryo” (Luke 1:42-43). The “embryonic” John responded to our Lord’s “embryonic” presence in precisely the same way he responded to his adult presence on the banks of the Jordan River.

These so-called “snowflakes” are brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus are stored in cryogenic containers in fertility clinics as the “extras” of IVF projects. They already exist, and they already exist as persons created in the image of God.

And there are Christians called to adopt them, to bring them to birth through pregnancy, and to raise them in love. To be sure, the numbers of children who can be adopted in this way are a microscopic percentage of the whole. And the numbers even of those who can be safely brought to birth is even smaller.

Isn’t this simply an embrace of the kind of “Brave New World” Frankenstein technology we elsewhere lament?

No.

Adopting parents are not complicit in the “production” (I shudder to type such a horrible word in reference to a human creature) of these children. Again, the children are already conceived. The adopting parents are no more endorsing the technologies involved than parents adopting from an unwed mother are endorsing fornication or adultery.

Embryo adoption also doesn’t carry with it the violence to the one-flesh union that comes with surrogacy or sperm donation, in which one spouse’s genetic material is joined with a stranger’s.

Embryo adoption would be problematic if the adoptions themselves became a further commodity in the buying and selling transactions of the reproductive technology business or if these adoptions were a widespread incentive for couples to justify the decision to “create” and freeze additional embryos. This is not, though, presently the case and doesn’t appear to be likely to become so anytime soon.

Originally posted here.Russell D. Moore is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the moral and public policy agency of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Friday, March 7, 2014

According to The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Christians should not support Embryonic Stem Cell Research.By: Joe Carter, December 12, 2013Aren’t embryonic stem cells more effective than adult stem cells at treating diseases? No. In fact, just the opposite is true: there are more than 70 conditions currently being treated with adult stem cells, and zero with embryonic stem cells. Despite the media hype of the early 2000s, embryonic stem cell research has proven to be useless at treating medical conditions. When tested on animals, embryonic stem cells turned into tumors. As biological engineer James Sherley once explained, “Figuring out how to use human embryonic stem cells directly by transplantation into patients is tantamount to solving the cancer problem.” Government and private funding sources have consistently shown a preference for adult stem cell research. For every dollar spent on embryonic stem cell research, four dollars is spent on research using adult stem cells. However, because of its unethical nature, more needs to be done to oppose any federal funding and discourage private funding of embryo-destructive research. Can Christians support embryonic stem cell research? Several passages in the Bible strongly suggest that human life begins at conception (Job 31:13-15; Ps. 51:5; 139:13-16; Matt. 1:20). The Bible is also clear about the taking of innocent life (Exod. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). For these reasons, Christians should not support medical research that requires killing innocent human beings at the earliest stage of their development. See more at: http://erlc.com/article/what-christians-should-know-about-embryonic-stem-cell-research#sthash.INRD8Z3R.dpuf

Saturday, February 15, 2014

If a woman is experiencing premature menopause, or another infertility condition in which her own eggs are not viable for reproductive purposes, she can still become pregnant with a donor embryo.

In one cost analysis study conducted in the United States, embryo adoption is approximately half the cost of an egg donation.

Despite the connotations associated with the name, an embryo adoption is actually a transfer of property – not the adoption of a child. Therefore, the donating couple is not legally responsible in any way should a child be produced from the embryo.

The discarding of embryos is ethically problematic for some individuals. Allowing these embryos to be used to help create a new life is an alternative to disposal or use in research.

Many embryo adoption programs will conduct a thorough home study to determine whether or not the embryo will be given to a couple who can provide a safe and loving environment should a child result.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, embryo adoptions have a national pregnancy success rate of 43 percent and live birth rate of 35 percent.

The average time between submitting an application to receiving a donation is approximately 6 months, much shorter than the average time to receive an egg donation or adopt a child.

Many embryo banks include information about the donating individuals in order to help match the recipient with desired ethnic, sex, or physical traits.

This adoption process is regulated by the government and all appropriate disease screening is required by law to protect the recipient.

Often times multiple embryos are available from a donor. If the recipient does not use all of these embryos – they can be returned to the original donor to be re-adopted out to another family in need.

- See more at: http://www.newwavemediaonline.com/2011/05/top-10-benefits-embryo-adoption/#sthash.AFtXLGOI.dpuf

Thursday, February 6, 2014

This story is remarkable on many levels. First, the embryo that became Liam is believed to be one of the oldest ever that was thawed after being frozen for so long. His siblings who were conceived at the same time are now college age. Second, the way Liam came into this world is part of a growing trend of embryo donation that represents a promising solution to our national problem of hundreds

of thousands of leftover IVF embryos languishing in storage.

What do you do when you undergo in-vitro fertilization, conceive a child and find yourself left with extra embryos? One Oregon couple kept theirs in the freezer for 19 years after having a set of twins via IVF, in case they wanted to expand their family more someday. But, year after year, they didn’t move forward and instead paid their annual storage bill of several hundred dollars. Finally, they decided to give their four remaining embryos to Kelly Burke, 45, a single woman from Virginia. Two were thawed and transferred to Burke’s uterus, and she’s now a mom to smiley 9-month-old Liam James.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The very first embryo adoptive family, the Strege's, tell how the very first "Snowflake Baby" came to be on the Family Talk radio broadcast with Dr. James Dobson. Tune in to hear how the journey of embryo adoption began and how it has progressed in 16 short years.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The very first embryo adoptive family, the Strege family, will appear TOMORROW, Wednesday, January 22nd on the Family Talk radio broadcast with Dr. James Dobson. Tune in to hear how the journey of embryo adoption began.

The discovery of IVF and the success of crypreservation allows embryos to be frozen after fertilization for future use. Many couples who previously suffered from infertility are now faced with the opposite problem - they have more babies (embryos) than they know what to do with. These families have three options: discard the babies (kill them), donate them to research (kill them), or give them to another couple via donation or adoption (let them live). This blog focuses on the issues and information surrounding the selfless miracle of the third choice: Embryo Donation & Adoption.